Gilbert Maggioni

During the later 1960s Gilbert Maggioni, a trained artist, brought new ideas and techniques to carving. He introduced the ideas of positive and negative space to his work, as well as allowing the “environment” of his birds to be included in the piece. Before Maggioni introduced these ideas a piece was judged based on the artist’s painting and carving abilities; however, after the entire composition of the piece was judged as a whole.
Maggioni put a great deal of effort into the environments for each bird, and most of the time he would carve his bird as blending in with whatever surrounded it, sometimes making it hard to tell the difference between the two. He also introduced different mediums into his work; not only using wood but resin, glass, wire, and bronze.